


A Truly Inescapable Future

by DarkqueenKat



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkqueenKat/pseuds/DarkqueenKat
Summary: It’s not enough to be good when it comes to hockey if you aren’t a media darling. You have to be better. Better than all the greats that came before you. If you're not first then you’re last. And Jack just can’t seem to ever go first.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	A Truly Inescapable Future

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading a news article about the NHL shutdown during quarantine and it reminded me of all the comments when the NHL decided to not let players participate in the Olympics. And all the people being so so ugly about the players and all the losses in the past. The media is so nasty, comments on articles should never be read, and I just felt maudlin enough to post about it. 
> 
> Though I did want to share this awesome quote, ‘So the 2018 men's hockey tournament was held with non-NHL talent, which is like dining at a three-Michelin star restaurant one night, and then pretending your frozen dinner will be just as tasty the next.‘

Watching the faces of his teammates when they find out that the NHL won’t allow players to be in the Olympics, Jack feels so old. Sometimes he forgets that some of those guys had lives before hockey. He forgets that some of them had college and homes and probably even relationships. For him though, the ice has been his only home for so long. He’s lived so many places over the years. Billet homes and too expectant billet parents washing back and forth through his memories. 

It’s not enough to be good when it comes to hockey if you aren’t a media darling. You have to be better. Better than all the greats that came before you. If you're not first then you’re last. And Jack just can’t seem to ever go first. Not in the draft, not in his interviews, not even in his mind. He’s never going to stop being compared to Connor. He understands though. Connor won’t ever stop being compared to Sid. It’s the way of the game. And the game is stacked. Just like Canada Bill Jones said. And for Jack it really is the only game in town. 

USA Hockey is like being told you are being given this great gift but you have to pay for it in blood and sweat and tears. Like it’s right there but you’ll never reach it. It’s do or die and Jack has always wanted to stand under that flag. Wearing those three letters on your chest is a dream for most kids. He’s done it now and he knows that they chip away at things. Accents start to blur and rivalries you never knew you had start to burn. Thousands of people screaming your name while dozens of reporters are watching for every mistake, every turn over to make your name bleed with your treason against your country. Jack can always tell which boys are rookies by their wide eyed smiles and jokes that their teammates are now the ‘enemy’. He’s played in too many international games to know that the enemy is your own country. They will turn on you quickly. 

Jack is as American as apple pie and was described as the new face of American hockey. It made him scoff. He just wants to play. He was never told that he would be great. He was told he had to win. It’s ironic that he never subscribed to the Johnny Toews school of ‘do better’ and yet he spent his life feeling the effects of it. Do better, be faster, keep your head up. 

So when he sees the news all he can feel is tired. Ancient with the weight of his years. He’s been through so many games. So much weight on his young shoulders. He is as American as they come and yet he doesn’t want to feel that pain of losing. He doesn’t want to cry with his teammates again. Even if they win, he knows that everyone everywhere will pick apart all the goals they didn’t score and all the plays they didn’t make. All he can feel is tired. In the end, he just keeps his head up and plays another shift.


End file.
